Very nice, I think that red is the best red I've seen on a bike, one of the few colours that look good whatever the light and better in reality than in a photo. But IMO (And I know I may be obsessive about it...) the first thing I see on your bike is all those zip ties!

Beautiful bike Martin, looks the business. Those handlebars looks very comfortable indeed. I've got a flat barred Sport Tour that I had from new and love it for my commute to work although if I was buying again I'd opt for drops like yours.

Nicely done, Martin, and the red-with-black is splendid. (Red is my preferred colour, but I chose black for my Raven with a view to making the bike as unobtrusive as possible, with just the alloy 'guards for a bit of zing.)

I was a bit sceptical at first with these shallow drop bars, an idea that I (again) copied from Dan.

But after using them for some time I now prefer them over the more traditional drops I have on my Raven Tour and my old lightweight derailleur tourer.

On my Raven Sport Tour I use 4 hand positions in order of increased aerodynamics - on the tops (this is for urban riding to see over the tops of cars. I have auxiliary brake levers for safety), on the hoods (braking possible, but not full power), holding the brake levers fully (hands usually here on fast descents), and hands on the lowest part of the drops (no immediate access to the brakes). I very rarely use this last position on my two other drop handlebar bikes, it is much more comfortable with these shallow drops.

jags

;DMartin you can get RED zipties ya know lovely bike buddy i don't think i'd be firing anything over the hedge belonging to that beauty, well ok the zip ties maybe but other than that the job's a good one.

I don't mind the zip ties. To some people, they may detract from the visual aesthetics of the bike. But to me, they are a simple solution to an engineering problem (cable routing). To each, his/her own.